"I am no longer 'young' for the Internet business," says Alibaba (ALBCF.PK) CEO Jack Ma, stepping down from his post effective May 10. His departure had been speculated about for several months and he had already pulled back from day-to-day operations to cultivate management talent.

Why did Yahoo (YHOO) decide to return most of the cash from its Alibaba sale to shareholders? One explanation, Owen Thomas notes, is that Marissa Mayer & co. may have decided potential acquisitions such as Foursquare and Yelp (YELP) "were still too expensive and wouldn't move the needle on Yahoo's core business." He adds a source indicates negotiations for the sale of the company's Yahoo Japan stake, another potential source of funds, haven't gone anywhere. Yahoo should have over $3B in the bank post-Alibaba.

Yahoo (YHOO+1.9%) spikes higher after announcing it will return 85% of the cash ($3.65B) obtained from the partial sale of its Alibaba (ALBCF.PK) stake to shareholders. Yahoo, which adds it still owns 23% of Alibaba, had fallen on worries Marissa Mayer would opt to hold onto most or all of the cash for the sake of pursuing acquisitions. "Marissa got over-lawyered into that 8-K," Eric Jackson opines. (PR)

Yahoo (YHOO) and Alibaba (ALBCF.PK) have officially closed their $7.6B share repurchase deal. Alibaba gets half of Yahoo's 40% stake back - it has the right to buy back half of the remainder if/when it IPOs - and Marissa Mayer now has $4.5B (post-tax) to potentially go acquisition-hunting with, following her decision to "review" plans to return the money to shareholders. Will Yelp (YELP) be in Mayer's crosshairs? Pinterest? Flipboard?

Acer (ASIYF.PK) and Alibaba (ALBCF.PK) just cancelled a smartphone launch featuring the latter's Aliyun OS, and Alibaba is blaming Google (GOOG). Alibaba, whose OS is Linux-based but can run Android apps, claims Google threatened to "terminate Android cooperation" with Acer if it went ahead with the launch. Though Android is technically open-source, Google wields tight control over what its partners can do with the OS. Baidu and Huawei are two other Chinese firms with mobile OS ambitions.

A partnership between PayPal (EBAY) and leading Chinese e-commerce platform DHGate.com has unraveled: DHGate, which claims to have over 3M buyers and 20M product listings, says it no longer accepts PayPal as a payment method, due to mutual disagreements. The deal was PayPal's biggest in China, whose online payments market is dominated by Alibaba (ALBCF.PK), Tencent (TCEHY.PK), and China UnionPay.

Alibaba (ALBCF.PK) is reportedly close to finishing an $8B financing round. The round will feature a combo of loans, common shares ($35B valuation), and convertible preferred shares ($43B valuation), and will allow Alibaba to buy back half of Yahoo's (YHOO) 40% stake for $7.1B. That represents more than a 14x return for Yahoo, which bought the entire stake for $1B seven years ago. Alibaba generated 1H revenue of more than $1.8B, up over 60% Y/Y. (yesterday)

Sohu.com (SOHU) is buying back a 10.88% stake in its Sogou search engine from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (ALBCF.PK) for $25.8M. Sogou saw its Q1 revenue jump 184% Y/Y, and has been gaining share in the Chinese search market. It might not be a coincidence the Sohu-Alibaba partnership is ending shortly after an e-commerce partnership between Baidu (BIDU) and Japan's Rakuten unraveled.

Leading Chinese e-commerce site 360buy appears to have delayed its long-expected U.S. IPO. The SEC's site doesn't contain any filings from 360buy, and the company reportedly suspended its application for a giant offering in June. 360buy, for its part, claims it never planned to go public before 2013. The company competes with Alibaba's (ALBCF.PK) Taobao, and has received an investment from Wal-Mart (WMT).

A JV between Baidu (BIDU) and Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten (RKUNF.PK) that sought to challenge Alibaba (ALBCF.PK) and 360buy's Chinese e-commerce dominance has officially ended. Launched in 2010 to high hopes, the JV, called Lekutian, was plagued by payment-collection issues, tough price competition, and Rakuten's struggles to adapt to Chinese consumer preferences.

Chinese instant messaging/gaming giant Tencent (TCEHY.PK) says it plans to invest $1B in its e-commerce subsidiary, with the goal of creating a "new-generation" consumer e-commerce platform. Tencent's investment could produce fresh competition for Alibaba (ALBCF.PK), which will remain 20%-owned by Yahoo (YHOO) following its pending share buyback, and Jingdong Mall, which has been mulling a U.S. IPO.

Chinese sovereign wealth fund CIC is in "advanced talks" to buy up to a $2B stake in Alibaba (ALBCF.PK), Reuters reports. The e-commerce giant would use the funds to help buy back half of Yahoo's (YHOO) 40% stake in the company for $7.1B, per the terms of Sunday's deal. Alibaba, valued at $35B in the Yahoo deal and eying an IPO, posted 2011 revenue of $2.8B, nearly 2/3 of which came from its Taobao auction site.

BGC upgrades Yahoo (YHOO+0.8%) to Buy after it finally concludes (I, II) its share-repurchase deal with Alibaba (ALBCF.PK). In addition to the deal, BGC is upbeat about Yahoo's new board, which includes Dan Loeb and 2 other Third Point nominees, arguing it will speed up decision-making, increase Yahoo's media focus, and reduce the likelihood of dilutive acquisitions and questionable product forays.

Alibaba agrees to repurchase a 20% stake in itself from Yahoo (YHOO) for ~$7.1B. Yahoo will receive at least $6.3B in cash and up to $800M in newly-issued Alibaba preferred stock. At the time of an IPO, Alibaba will be required to ultimately buy back 25% of Yahoo's current stake, or let Yahoo sell those shares in the offering. Alibaba will make an upfront royalty payment of $550M and continuing royalty payments for up to four years. (PR) (previously)

Kara Swisher (who else?) reports Yahoo's (YHOO) board - Dan Loeb included - has approved a taxable deal to sell half its 40% stake in Alibaba (ALBCF.PK) for $7B. Post-tax, Yahoo will net ~$4B, which it will use to buy back its own shares. Swisher adds "medium-term incentives" have been given to Alibaba to float an IPO, including the right to buy back half of Yahoo's remaining 20% stake. (previous)